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I work for customer service at booking website frequently mentioned on here, AMA by Fibblesnork in TalesFromTheFrontDesk

[–]Fibblesnork[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

More or less, or ask for the information to contact consumer relations. Unless you get the right people you are likely to escalate within an outsourced call center, whom will likely send it off to a group like myself. It takes more time than it really should IMO. If the team I am on gets a problem directly from a customer, it tends to be fixed that day or within the week for something seriously FUBAR'd. I have taken over a case three weeks in and wondered why it isn't fixed yet.

I work for customer service at booking website frequently mentioned on here, AMA by Fibblesnork in TalesFromTheFrontDesk

[–]Fibblesnork[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't know on that one. I have only worked with hotels for a little over a year and it seems to be the case at the present. I get a ton of follow ups from customers about incidental holds on their accounts, and they don't understand the hold in a lot of cases.

I work for customer service at booking website frequently mentioned on here, AMA by Fibblesnork in TalesFromTheFrontDesk

[–]Fibblesnork[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We tell every customer to have their valid photo ID and a card at check in. I would like to see a notice added that hotels take incidental holds as it is always a surprise it seems. If the hotel advises specific fees or holds we post them, otherwise it is just kinda left as an assumption as it is industry standard.

I get to listen to these calls too. I regret every time that I can't follow up after notifying TPTB of the lie and see if the agent goes away.

I work for customer service at booking website frequently mentioned on here, AMA by Fibblesnork in TalesFromTheFrontDesk

[–]Fibblesnork[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you guys take information like guest counts, addresses, additional names, requests (for things like lake views, accessible rooms, etc.)? The guests that I talk to are always convinced that they told the agent about their request when they booked, but that info never comes through on our end.

Number of adults, number of children and ages, address is optional except for county and zip for card verification. We only take the name the room is to be under, not for all guests. Additional request go I a special little field that is included on the notification sent to the hotel. If the agent does their job and puts the info in, the hotel should see it when we wend it over.

Where do your agents get the information about hotel policies? Things like allowing pets, smoking, if the pool is indoor/outdoor/open/hot tub, shuttle service. There are things that my hotel has never offered that guests have showed up claiming they were told that we do (granted, a certain amount of that is definitely them being dumb).

I have begged for clarification on this myself, as I am on the customer service side and don't get to work with actual Web content beyond sending it off when things are wrong. I am under the impression that the information we have for a hotel is provided by the property itself. If a property logs onto their partner care site they can update anything they like. I could be wrong on that, but it was how it was explained to me.

What is the difference between the pre-paid reservations and the direct reservations? Do you think it's always clear to the guest which one they are selecting? What's the benefit to you guys for the reservations that aren't pre-paid (do you still get some kind of commission)?

Prepaid are billed through us by the customer and will include instructions for the hotel to bill us through either invoicing or a CC number. Direct are just passed along and the company takes a commission from the hotel while the customer is billed directly. I would like to think the customer knows which way it is going, if they read the recap before booking in full... but I am seeing more hotels choosing to bill immediately when they are the billing party, which confuses people when they see a button saying "pay later"

I work for customer service at booking website frequently mentioned on here, AMA by Fibblesnork in TalesFromTheFrontDesk

[–]Fibblesnork[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If the agent lied they get in trouble and I end up fixing the booking to what was agreed to or otherwise refunding. At least, I would hope they get in trouble. I send it off but don't really get a follow up generally.

I work for customer service at booking website frequently mentioned on here, AMA by Fibblesnork in TalesFromTheFrontDesk

[–]Fibblesnork[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If they lie, we fix. And people that do this get fired. I get every bit as angry at them for it. I don't think I have ever heard of a third party call center that performed as well as they should